A random collection of musings, observations, links, comments, analysis and thoughts on pop culture, television, movies, music, sports and life in general from someone who has painfully eschewed therapy.

On Friday's season (but hopefully not series) finale of the criminally underwatched Raines, Cynthia Watros (Lost's Libby) showed up as Raines' ex wife. Jodi Lyn O'Keefe (daughter on Nash Bridges and high school queen in She's All That) was the hot, bitchy wife of one of the plane crash victims. Plus, there was the "birth" of a new term: "friend whore." Raines was disappointed that his friend and boss had gone out to dinner with Raines' ex and her new husband. So Raines called his boss a "friend whore." Funny. (I had the same experience once, where a supposedly good friend of mine played nice with one of my exes after a bitter, bitter break up. I wish I had known that term back then. As House told Wilson: "bros, not hos").

Jane Adams was in Tuesday's fantastic House. Jane is best known as the wonderfully loony (and strangely attractive) Dr. Mel Karnofsky from Frasier. I had written down a host of laugh out loud lines (like "there's a lot of porn piling up on the internet. It doesn't download itself!" and "You keep yelling. I think you'll owe me sex."), but a bizarre incident involving a cat and a coffee mug obliterated my scribblings.

Thursday's funny My Name is Earl featured Kurt Fuller as one of the downtrodden teachers. Kurt is one of those "hey, it's that guy" performers who often pops up in guest roles, most recently on Studio 60 (coming back to say goodbye after sweeps) and as a detective investigating Bree on Desperate Housewives.

Fuller showed up yet again later Thursday evening in a wonderfully wacky CSI: Original Recipe ("Ending Happy"), that also featured Peter Stormare (Fargo, VW ads, basically anything that requires someone unctuously unhinged with a borderline indecipherable accent). I love that this show can go from serious, captivating arcs like with the Miniature Killer to bizarre, chuckle-fests like this one. Brass was deliciously deadpan ("do I look like Paula Abdul to you?"), and it took a while to figure out which of the various wounds ("snake" bite, crowbar, crossbow, seafood blowjob, drowning) actually killed him. All the characters at the seedy brothel were hysterical, and they made great use of film technique and music (like the Frankenstein theme shots). A great departure from formula, as was the recent "Lab Rats" episode featuring Hodges.